How is the ride compared to stock? Been doing some research and found the Evo owners don't like them because it's too soft and handling suffers. My springs arrived yesterday. Will start install tonight or tomorrow morning. If these don't feel or handle as well as stock, I will go with a nice set of coilovers.

I dont think anyone has actually put both sets on their car yet to compare with them being still so new to the market. I went with TEIN, better price and just right amount of drop needed. RS.R Super Downs look pretty sick too, but $100 more and delivery time is pretty hard to guess since they are flying off dealers shelves.

I got the Teins because I know they have been around a long time and is a spring company. I finished the install today. Took a lot longer than I thought but after figuring out one side, it went a lot faster on the other. I am very happy with the ride quality. I would say just like stock. Felt really good in sport and sport +. The drop is perfect for what I wanted. But over speed bumps, I scrape the lower flaps. I was worried I had scraped the bumper. Write up of the install to follow. I am sore from head to toe.

Thought I would write a brief writeup on how I installed these springs. I signed up (2 days) at https://techinfo.toyota.com and printed out the service manual instructions. They let you download other items in PDF but unfortunately not the service manual. I basically followed the procedures for one side which took me a longer time to do and then was much faster on the other side.

Disclaimer: I'm not a mechanic by trade but like to work on cars. With that said, I'm not responsible for any damage that may occur if you decide to follow my writeup. Also, I am not going to mention socket sizes below but you will use mainly 17mm and 19mm.

Fronts (procedure same for both sides)
1. Chock rear wheels. You can choose not to and leave it up to the e-brake but I do it anyways
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2. Loosen front lugs.

3. Jack up front of car. I used the center jack point and placed jack stands on the sides on the inside of the pinch weld location.

4. Remove front wheel.

5. Separate skid control sensor wire and remove upper swaybar link (red arrow). Pic shows bolts removed. If you want to get the wire completely out of the way, you can disconnect the end of the cable from the spindle but I couldn't figure out how to remove it. Didn't have any problems just leaving the wire connected and had plenty of room.

7. Attach ball joint separator tool and detach ball joint from suspension arm. I had a jack underneath the lower suspension arm and was holding onto the spindle while using the tool. It takes a few turns before you hear a loud pop.

8. Support the spindle. I used twine from IKEA I had laying around. Cable ties work as well. If you don't support it, it will pull on the brake line which you don't want to do.

9. Remove the upper shock absorber cap (w/ AVS). 3 bolts.

10. Remove the clip from the actuator. Carefully twist it counterclockwise 40 degrees and lift.

11. Support the lower suspension arm with a jack and remove lower shock bolt (black arrow). NOTE: Remove the bolt not the nut because the nut has ridges on the face of it. So loosen the bolt only. I used an old towel or block of wood on top of the jack to protect the finish of the arm.

12. Loosen the nut on top of the shock. Don't remove it. It will help when you take off the springs.

13. Remove the 3 nuts from the top of the shock.

14. Slowly lower your jack supporting the lower suspension arm and wrestle out the shock. At this point you may want to loosen your twine/cable ties from the spindle so it can drop low enough.

15. At this point I also marked the shock top and bottom orientation with a marker so when I put it back together, everything should line up perfectly.

16. Use a spring compressor and remove old spring.

17. Per TEIN's instructions, I also cut the bump stop.

18. Use spring compressor on new spring and reassemble to shock body. Make sure everything lines up and you have the correct spring orientation. Don't fully tighten the upper shock nut. It will be tightened after the shock is re-installed.

19. And then reinstall everything in reverse order. NOTE: Be careful when you reinstall the absorber actuator. It is held on by 2 clips. Make sure the clips clear the mount before you turn it clockwise 40 degrees. I just missed one side and the right clip (red arrow) popped off and ended up somewhere in the engine bay. Luckily after removing some undercarriage panels, I found it and reinstalled.

20. Torque everything down to specs. Make sure you don't tighten the side with nut or bolt with the ridges.

This is such a good review.. it will come in handy when i get a set this summer..

Quote:

Originally Posted by IS350S2K

Thought I would write a brief writeup on how I installed these springs. I signed up (2 days) at https://techinfo.toyota.com and printed out the service manual instructions. They let you download other items in PDF but unfortunately not the service manual. I basically followed the procedures for one side which took me a longer time to do and then was much faster on the other side.